Computer Indexing of Psychiatric Assessment

We will develop a simple yet important idea, computerized indexing of digital audio recording of psdiagnostic assessment interviews (and video in Phase II). Although audio and video have been used foreliability studies, the physical mechanisms for locating and playing back information are tedious,educational material is expensive. Digital recording under computer control with automatic and manuaexpected to allow faster operation of these functions for lower cost. The applicant will undertake treliability study benefits from this innovation in terms of time and quality. At present, the Divisithe World Health Organization (WHO) is sponsoring development and publication of the Schedules for CAssessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN). This instrument is becoming an international standard for semiclinical assessment in psychiatric research. Version 1 was published in 1992. Following publicationDSM-IV, SCAN Version 2 updates version 1 to cover additional items and information needed for thesesystems and will be published in 1994. Along with the printed version, SCAN Version 2 will be availaprogram running in Microsoft Windows, offering several advantages. Most important for this project,architecture for automatic indexing of digital audio or video recording of interviews. WHO will makefor the SCAN computer program available, which will serve as the platform for the system. When a clicomputer SCAN to interview a subject, the highlighted, active SCAN item will become the index elemenportion of the recording. Manually-entered index elements will be possible to add later during revieThe computer SCAN with indexed digital audio (and video) recording will have application to SCAN trageneral psychiatric education, reliability research, and medical records. In the long run, computeriassessment has the potential to improve the quality of mental health services by fostering standardiclinical databases which can be used for scientific study.